Abstract

The present research had the objective to use the factor analysis in the evaluation of the competitive capacity of three native species from the Carajás National Forest in competition with different plant densities of the Urochloa brizantha grass. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse and consisted in planting pots with the native species Bauhinia longipedicellata, Mimosa acutistipula and Solanum crinitum in competition with the exotic grass Urochloa brizantha. The exotic grass was established at densities ranging from 1 to 5 plants per pot, composing a 3 × 5 factorial arrangement with four replications that were delineated completely at random. Data were submitted to factor analysis for further analysis of variance and Tukey’s test at a 0.05 level of significance with the extracted factors. The effects of U. brizantha densities were evaluated by regression analysis. Out of the four extracted factors, three could be interpreted and were defined as vegetative growth index, infestation density index and physiological quality index. The Solanum crinitum species was slightly greater than the others in terms of vegetative growth rate and physiological quality. Generally speaking, native species maintain their vegetative growth in competitive conditions with up to two Urochloa brizantha plants; above that, the vegetative growth index tends to zero, while the infestation density index becomes positive.

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